While simple logic models are an adequate way to gain clarity and initial understanding about a program, sound program theory can enhance understanding of the underlying logic of the program by providing a disciplined way to state and test assumptions about how program activities are expected to lead to program outcomes.

Lecture, exercises, discussion, and peer-critique will help you to develop and use program theory as a basis for decisions about measurement and evaluation methods to disentangle the success or failure of a program from the validity of its conceptual model, and to facilitate the participation and engagement of diverse stakeholder groups. Recent advances in techology-enhanced conceptual frameworks to guide evaluations will also be discussed.